Art Experiment: Dy-na-flow and Textile Color on silk

Art Experiment is a a series of posts using supplies which I own but have rarely (or never) used. Failure or success is not important, it is trying something different and seeing what can come from it.  There are three goals: try something new, use something in my supply stash, and have fun/experiment in the studio.

I have a trial size set of Dy-na-flow paints and Jacquard Textile Colors paints.  I have heard that Dy-na-flow works great on silk, so -darn- I had to buy some silk. I did not water down the Dy-na-flow, but did water down the textile colors by about 25%.

I put my paints in cups so I could use a brush to apply it to the fabric. I labeled the cups with the paint type and color name.

I decided to try some sun printing because I love it so much.

Here is my fabric (an opaque white silk with silk organza over the top). I wet the fabrics, and painted different colors on top, laid down the stencils (and pinned them so they would not blow away), and set it out in the sun.

This sun print came out beautifully. The colors are very bold, so I may water down the paints if I use them again in the future.

 Here you can see the sheer folded back on the right, and the opaque fabric on the left.

I always love the print I get from this wood bead placemat.

Here is my layout using the Textile Color paints.

The sun print is very soft and not very detailed. This may be because I watered down these paints, or because it was late in the day and the sun wasn't very strong. My gut feeling is that regardless of these things, the Dy-na-flow is definitely the better paint than the Textile color for sun printing.

 Sheer folded back on the right, opaque fabric on the left.  The paint did not seep through to the lower layer as well as it did with the Dy-na-flow.

I also painted (both types of paint) onto silk dupioni and then sprinkled Jacquard Silk Salt on it. I thought the salt marks were too distinctive and the colors didn't blend much.

I had a bit of paint remaining, so I decided to do puddle painting. (I have a separate post on this using Setacolor paints).  This is roughly an 18" x 20" piece of cotton velvet.  I used the Dy-na-flow paints, and there was a lot of black left, which overpowered the other colors. I put down some stencils and plastic leaves for sun printing.

This turned out better than expected since it looked so black before sun printing!

For the Textile paints, I also did puddle painting as well, on silk dupioni.

Detail.

Overall, I thought the Dy-na-flow worked great and was very vibrant.  I definitely would consider using it again, especially on a silk project.  For the Textile Color, I would not use it to sun print, but it may be good for painting specific designs on fabric, or applying it through a stencil or with a stamp?

I do love my Setacolors, and I think the hand of the fabric is the same with Dy-na-flow or Setacolor. The Dy-na-flow colors seem more vibrant to me, but that may be because I was working on silk.  So I may need to try Setacolors on silk as well.  I do feel like the Dy-na-flow and Textile Color definitely need to be heat set.  The paints easily washed off my hands.  The Setacolor paints seem more permanent prior to heat setting.  When I used Setacolor Transparent paints on my foam backer board, it always dries and never transfers to my next project. With these other paints, I feel like I need to hose down my boards to prevent any leftover paint from re-activating the next time I use my boards.

I have had a lot of fun with my recent Art Experiments. My next project will have the salt patterned dupioni as a background layer.  I hope to complete it by next week!